1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to bee feeders, and more particularly, to a frame holding bee feeder to be placed inside a hive, and which has the capacity to store large quantities of liquid and solid foods for bees and, at the same time, to support frames to provide bees with safe and easy access to their food supply.
2. Description of Prior Art
Currently, there exists a variety of bee feeders that can be placed either inside or outside of hives. Although some success has been provided by such bee feeders, the weakness of the external feeders is that they are not selective and cannot control which bees should be administered the feed. They also lead to disturbances in bee populations from other hives taking the feed from the external feeder, called "robbing" by beekeepers.
There also exists external feeders that permit the allocation of feed to an assigned hive, by administering the feed directly in the front entrance of the hive. However, these external feeders still do not prevent robbing. Furthermore, these known external feeders have limited capacity for carrying feed (maximum of 2 liters).
The present invention, in contrast, is for use in the interior of a beehive, to both divide the hive and prevent contact between the feed supply and bees foreign to the colony it feeds, to, therefore, prevent robbing.
Feeders are also known for use inside a hive, and consist basically of three types, as described below.
A) Feeders which only use viscous or semisolid foodstuffs. These feeders are generally perforated bags which let bees extract the feed from the openings in the bags. However, these perforated bags have the inconvenience of requiring viscous feed to avoid spillage inside the hive. The viscous feed, however, is usually difficult to handle in large quantities, and tends to vary in viscosity according to temperature. Therefore, at higher ambient temperatures, the viscous food product can liquify, thereby causing severe spillage, and/or drowning of bees. Furthermore, this type of feeder does not allow storage of a large volume of feed.
The present invention allows the use of either liquid or viscous feed, without the danger of spillage, and can hold a large volume of feed (up to 12 liters of feed per feeder). Loading the feed into the present invention is very fast with liquid feed, since it can be pumped directly into the feeder.
B) Known feeders of liquid feed can be classified in two general categories:
1. Atmospheric: According to the definition by A. I. and E. R. Root--ABC and XYZ of beekeepers--Ed Hachette--Buenos Aires, Argentina). Atmospheric feeders utilize the principle of regulation of the dispensing of liquid feed they hold using atmospheric pressure. Such feeders consist of containers (usually bottles) having a wide opening filled with syrup, and are placed, upside down, over a tray with high walls. As bees take the liquid feed from the tray, air enters the container and forces the supply of feed down into the tray until the contents of the bottle or container are depleted. These internal feeders, however, have the inconvenience of having a low capacity of syrup or feed storage, and are difficult to load. Furthermore, placement of the feeder inside a hive is problematic due to the need to invert the container.
The present invention overcomes problems with known feeders and allows loading of the feed in the main part of the feeder, resulting in quick and easy loading and unloading.
2. Doolite feeders: These internal feeders consist of a rectangular-shaped container, open in its top face, and are placed inside the standard Langstroth size hive, replacing a frame and hung in the hive by tabs on its outer extremities. Doolite feeders are inconvenient to use because of their low storage capacity (3 liters). Furthermore, they take the place of a frame, and require the placement of floating elements on the liquid (such as wooden chips) to provide a stable platform for the bees, which come to the surface of the liquid to feed, so that the bees won't fall in the liquid and drown.
The present invention uses a larger volume container with standard frames inserted into the feeder, as a surface for the bees to stand on during feeding, and to crawl in and out of the feeder.